Preview: The Evil Within

Have you ever been thrilled by surprises? Surprises of the creepy variant? The sort that would either make your heart skip a beat or go faster,sensing your fear? The sort that would make your insides turn in disgust? If so do not despair for The Evil Within shall rise to surprise you once more and shall continue to do so until the very end.

Nothing amuses horror fans as much as a good horror game. And its been quite some time since a good one actually came out. Also if you might recall, it has also been a long time since a good Resident Evil game showed. I mean the two of the more recent installments were actually action packed third-person shooters, without all the claustrophobia and feeling of pure fear. Probably that’s cause the original creator of the series, Mr.Shinji Mikami, often referred to as the father of survival horror, had himself said goodbye to the game studio behind the critically acclaimed series a few years after the release of Resident Evil 4. And now he’s back with a team of his own (Tango studios ) and has joined hands with Bethesda for a grand comeback into the recently deteriorating horror genre,to surprise his old fans once more.

The Evil Within begins with the protagonist, Detective James Castellanos and two of his partners Joseph Oda and Julie Kidman, being sent to investigate a mass murder in an asylum, unaware of the evil that awaits within. The team then gets attacked by a mysterious foe and is forced to split up. James must now engage in a deadly fight for survival as he proceeds along the asylum in a bid to rescue his partners, uncovering all sorts of unimaginable and disturbing truths and horrors that lie within the asylum, which eventually threatens to spread further to the outside world.

Throughout the course of the game you will be navigating through diverse environments like the narrow hallways of the asylum or through a zombie infested village and a seemingly abandoned and crumbling city, solving puzzles or maybe just trying to find your way out of all this madness. Hiding in one place isn’t exactly safe as you will easily get outnumbered by a group of berserking enemies, who won’t stop till you are dead or rather till you kill them.And when things get quiet, you will get the feeling that you are being followed by someone or something. And that’s when you find yourself face to face with one of the games numerous terrifying creeps. Armed with a handgun, a shotgun and a torch, you’ll have to make a decision to either fight them or flee or hide somewhere where they can’t find you.

The game also has a great line up of boss villains. There’s a creep called safe head (or box head), a character who seems to be inspired from Silent Hill 2‘s Pyramid head. As the name suggests, he wears a small rusty safe on his head and wields an axe to hunt his prey. Then there’s Rebone Laura, a terrifying creature that resembles a mutated pair of female siamese twins with long hair and sharp claws. Then there’s a masked axe wielding psychopath who’s got a thing for mannequins. Then there’s a monster that’s been created by sewing together several human corpses. Then there’s a crazed chainsaw wielding “butcher” who you are to confront in the early part of the game. And there’s also this mysterious character who seems to be covered in burns and wearing a white hood and possessing a variety of special paranormal powers.

One of the best things about the game is that unlike the Resident Evil series, the plot isn’t strictly restricted by a sci fi setting. There’s more of paranormal and mysterious feel to this game. As depicted in the trailer above, some of the doorways instantly send you to mysterious places wherein more trouble awaits you. Then there’s also a mysterious family portrait which might give you a hint of who’s really responsible for all the mess you are going through.

Evidently The Evil Within isn’t the only horror game that’s scheduled to arrive this year. Alien:Isolation, The Forest, The Dying Light, Routine, The Vanishing of Ethan Carter, Asylum and S.O.M.A. are just few amongst the horror titles that shall be launching either this year or in 2015. In short it’ll be one hell of a year for horror fans. The Evil Within shall haunt your dreams on the 26th of August 2014.